Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[soleinvictus72]

I am syncing music files to a portable hard drive and because this is subsequently connected to a custom audio player in my car I have some specialised folder format syncing requirements (the player cant read normal playlist formats such as .m3u, etc).

Is it possible to Create a New Library Field entry from the Name of a Playlist / Smart Playlist?

Unless another way is possible, I need to do this so that when syncing, songs in a certain Playlist are syncd to the hard drive in a folder with the same name (using Handheld Options> Files and Paths> Audio Path: [New Library Field Name])

Eg: All songs in in the Playlist named 'Road Trip Mix' have a Library Field Entry called 'Road Trip Mix' and are therefore syncd to  folder on my hard drive also called 'Road Trip Mix'.

I realise this may create duplicates of certain songs, however this isnt a problem, and is in fact necessary.

Please help! THANKS

[ShayB]

hi.

let me see if I understand you question correctly,

you wish to generate under a specific root some several folders, each folder is named after a playlist/smart list (which you already created).

You can create a field named [My Playlists] and fill it as you like. then on the conversion options you can select the audio path to be [My Playlists]\   and now each playlist becomes a folder. and SYNC.  tr it on few files at first.

same for burning data CDs.

Is this what you were looking for?

[soleinvictus72]

Yes, that is essentially what I want to do as far as folder structure is concerned, however I would like the new library field to be filled automatically with the name of the playlist, as it defeats the purpose of an automatic sync if I have to fill the field manually for every playlist created.

Is this possible, or another method which achieves the same result?

THANKS 

[ShayB]

Yes, that is essentially what I want to do as far as folder structure is concerned, however I would like the new library field to be filled automatically with the name of the playlist, as it defeats the purpose of an automatic sync if I have to fill the field manually for every playlist created.

hi again,
ok then,
where is the information (about the various playlists that you want) stored?
your original request was to build folders based on your playlists/smartlists. since you don't want to (one time per playlist) want to do it manually, you probably chose the smartlist aproach. even so, each smartlist have a name and set of rules.... so you gain "automatic population of tracks" into smartlists but the pain of generating a smartlist is still there and aagain it is a "one time per smartlist"

to summroze the playlist/smartlist issue. you must have all the information about which playlists/smartlists you have before you can do a sync. look it from the "PC or MediaCenter software" point of view: "how should I know which playlists to generate?"    you have to give some information about your desired playlists/smartlists.

so, I would like to further assist you but I think that something very obvious to you and you are not telling: where is the information that the playlists (will be generated upon) is located.

As people used to answer to me, "MC can do everything" I am sure I and others can help you reach a solution but further info is still needed

[soleinvictus72]

Thanks fr your reply. Perhaps I am not explaining myself correctly.

I have no trouble creating the playlists in MC13, be they regular or smart playlists. This is not a problem.

However, like you mentioned above, in order to Sync and have the correct folder structure result I need to:

...create a field named [My Playlists] and fill it as you like. then on the conversion options you can select the audio path to be [My Playlists]\   and now each playlist becomes a folder. and SYNC.  tr it on few files at first.

This I fully understand.

So, ok, fine:
- I now have all my Playlists/Smartlists created.
- I now also have a new Library Field called 'My Playlists'
- However, this Library Field is empty.
- How can it be filled automatically with the name of the relevant Playlist/Smartlist (in order for the above audio path file creation to work)?

Does this make sense? THANKS

[ShayB]

hi,

ok, I think I can help you in 2 methods:

1. Your case: you have some playlists with [My playlists] field empty:
     this method is actually not used by me because it used methods from way back in the past
     and you will have to spend more effort in that. The good news is that what I am about to write here
     will get you what you want AND help you in the future playlists.

    so,
    1. go to your first playlist.
    now you are about to fill the [My playlists] of all the files in the playlist so either:
    a.  customize the view so that it contains the empty field [My playlists] and then select that column and fill it.
       or
    b. customize the action-window->tag so that it contains you field. select the files of the playlist and fill the field using the action-window.

     2. repeat that for all the playlists that you have (also for the smart lists).
     3. now that you have a field that stores the information of all the playlists, you don't need the playlists anymore! (don't delete them though just yet).
         you can now have smart lists based on that field. from now on you will not generate the playlists manually (drag files to a playlist) like you used to. only by the method below:

2. create playlists the "new way". this way takes advantage of the database capabilities of MC:

    1. create a view that contain [my playlists] as a field (I also have it on the pane too).
    1. whenever you want to create a new playlist or want to edit an existing one (or even delete a playlist)
       you only fill/edir/clean the tag from the specific file/s you want or change the content.


to show how strong the above "method migration" here is an example:
suppose you have 30000 songs. suppose you have 10000 songs in "old method" 50 playlists and want to convert them to the "new method" you have to go over 50 playlist views and in each fill the content of the [my playlist] field (in each playlist press F2 select the name and CTRL-C) then go to the field and F2 followed by CTRL-V this makes about 5 key strokes per playlist (after the 1st 5 playlists you will gain experience) and it will take you 5 seconds per playlist.

notes:
  1. I always store the playlist in my files also.... make your own choise :-)
  2. you will need only one smart list to capture all the songs that [my playlist] is not empty and the folder separation will be done automatically.
  3. I also have an index field so when converting them I can sort by that playlist->index.
  4. you can define the [my playlist] to be a list and then the file will be in several playlists (then ignore note 3
      or define another field which contain a single value).
  5. always check that the amount of selected files (displayed at the bottom of MC) is correct!!!!!


now that you have your cook-book you can try for yourself on small amount of files.
if it takes you a lot of time to convert (I think that it worth the effort) do few changes per day...

let me know if you have questions / new ideas (while working on that I am sure you will come up with few tricks of your own to save time and key-strokes).

[soleinvictus72]

Thanks very much for your reply, however unless I have misunderstood, this doesnt help me at all, and I still need to fill in the [My Playlist] field for each file manually.

As I said, I dont have a problem creating the playlists, I simply need a field to be created automatically which the Audio Path option can then use for Sync and Folder creation.

To be honest, it sounds like I have to do this manually, however Ill try and explain one more time.

EG:

I have a Smartlist called 'Recently Imported' as follows:
*Media type is Audio
*Date Imported is in the last 4 weeks

Using Audio Path [My Playlists]\[Album Artist] - [Album]\ would work if the [My Playlists] field is filled, however it is currently empty.

As discussed, I can fill this field manually (and there are several ways to do this), however it is possible to have it filled automatically with the name of the Playlist/Smartlist?

Of course, it would also need to automatically be 'un filled' when a file is no longer meets the 'Recently Imported' criteria and therefore drops out of the smartlist.

THANKS

[soleinvictus72]

Ok, whilst my above post still applies, lets ignore it for a moment, as I've just noticed that there IS a Tag entitled Playlists which is generated automatically by MC13.

It contains all the playlists that a particular song/file is part of.

However, 'Playlists' doesnt seem to be in the Library fields - how can I create it?

Also, since this tag can contain multiple playlist names, what audio path do I need to use to separate these when syncing?
Eg: File has Playlists: Recently Imported, Fun Mix, Favourite Rock

If I use Audio Path [Playlists]\[Album Artist] - [Album]\ 
I think it will create one folder Recently Imported, Fun Mix, Favourite Rock\[Album Artist] - [Album]\
instead of 3 folders:

Recently Imported\[Album Artist] - [Album]\
Fun Mix\[Album Artist] - [Album]\
Favourite Rock\[Album Artist] - [Album]\

THANKS

[Alex B]

Even if there were an automatically updated "playlists" library field it would not work because a file can in several playlists (as you noticed).

The only solution I can think of would be a new sync option that would create a folder from the name of the synced playlist. It would need to allow duplicate files on the portable (I think that currently a file is not duplicated if it already exists).

[soleinvictus72]

There is already an automatically updated "playlists" Tag.

Is there not a method to read this Tag within the Library, since it already exists?

[Alex B]

The Playlists "tag" is available in Action Window > Tag and it can be used in searches, but it is dynamically updated. There is no actual library field for it (in Options > Library & Folders > Manage Library Fields...).

[soleinvictus72]

Correct. Is it not possible to create a Library Field for it, with the appropriate expression language?

[soleinvictus72]

The only solution I can think of would be a new sync option that would create a folder from the name of the synced playlist. It would need to allow duplicate files on the portable (I think that currently a file is not duplicated if it already exists).

This, of course, would be ideal